Christmas Spirit

Without hesitation I can say this is one of the most stressful Christmases EVER! Sam is so excited about Christmas that she's practically coming out of her skin! I wish I could feel her enthusiasm, but that got me thinking about Christmases past. When we're kids we all seem to be crazy about Christmas; there's cookies, games, friends, relatives, food, desserts, PRESENTS!, caroling, church activities, school parties, did I mention food? But when we were kids (or at least in my case) I never took stock of where all these amazing Christmas "things" were coming from...they were just there, every year better the the last. Who did this? Who created all this Christmas spirit? Well this year it hit me! Mom! My mother always talked about being tired after Christmas and I thought she was just old, last year I was 30 and I passed out of the couch for about 2 days after my guests left. I don't think I was old I just became mom!

Well in church today the preacher was discussing Christmas being one of the most stressful and painful times of the year for most people mainly b/c we put so much effort into trying to uphold a level of "expectation" through the eyes of others. Maybe if we took it down a notch, maybe if we just made one less dish at Christmas dinner; bought and wrapped one less gift for each person; made one less batch of cookies; put one more gift into Toys for Tots; put one more quarter in the Salvation Army bucket; sent a box of cookies to the troops...then would we be able to take a step back and realize that the Christmas spirit we're all looking for is the spirit of Christ? I forget all too often.